The Coalitional Presidentialism Project

Much of the classic literature on democratic survival has suggested that presidentalism, or the combination of presidentialism and multipartyism, is bad for democracy. Yet many of the multiparty political systems that have emerged in Africa, Latin America and the former Soviet Union have proved to be remarkably stable. In large part, this is because presidents have proved able to act like prime ministers, forming cross-party coalitions to ensure a legislative majority and hence the (at least partial) success of their legislative agendas. The Coalitional Presidentialism Project (CPP) represents an attempt to understand the politcs of alliance formation and maintenance, and asks important questions such as: How do presidents manage divided legislatures? How does this vary accross the world? What strategies have proved to be the most successfull? Do these strategies promote, or undermine, processes of democratization?